Apologies for the long wait everyone. I've been trying to get around to do other stories but it's just finding the inspiration you know? Also I'm planning on some tiny edits for the story, nothing major just some "cleaning" of previous chapters, make the characters feel more like themselves, it won't affect the story majorly.
Terminator
Bond of Steel and Bone
Chapter 31
Fixing up the troops. Happy Birthday Sofia
It had taken a few hours, but they had what they finally needed, John felt a small sense of relief flow through his body once Cameron had located a secluded area to work, an abandoned garage in the suburbs of L.A. the place given power when Tony the T-800 was able to jury rig Myron Stark's power cell into the electrics, it would drain the cell but at least they had some power. John began to work on Cameron, to fix what damage his skills and the tools they'd procured could fix up, namely the damage to her leg, knee and her arm. By now John was sweating due to his nerves, praying that he wouldn't inflict more damage to her than was already done, thankfully she helped him every step of the way.
"And you'll be better right?" he asked, as he knelt in front of Cameron, whom was perched on a table, just finishing the repairs to her leg joint.
Cameron looked at her leg and moved the knee joint experimentally, "It's better than it was, thank you John." She smiled at him gently and flexed her fingers, John had done an admirable job on fixing that too, he was ahead of schedule. "We should get to work on Tony, his body has suffered more damage."
John nodded in agreement, admittedly he felt like a heel not working on the 800 first, even though he had sustained more damage than Cameron had, simply because of his bias for Cameron.
"Sorry Tony, are you okay?" John asked, looking at the skull-faced T-800.
"It's alright." The Machine-man answered, his voice fluctuating badly, making John internally wince.
"Come on, lay down on the table and we'll fix you up best we can, okay?" John told him as Cameron jumped down from the table, the 800 simply nodded and walked-limped over to the table, pushed himself up on it and laid himself flat on his back.
"Proceed." Tony simply stated as John looked over the Machine's body.
"I've a list of his injuries John." Cameron informed John helpfully.
"Great, you tell me what needs to be done." John instructed her.
Together the pair were able to reduce the damage done to the 800s' body, however getting to the damage required removing more pieces of artificial flesh, then carefully dismantling the limb, replace or fix what was damage then put the whole thing back together, it was long and tedious work, and some make-shift fixers were needed, it wasn't professional and it wasn't perfect due to the lack of 800 series parts, having to make do with similar Triple-Eight parts, the afternoon crept along and they only paused when John's cell phone began to ring.
"John," it was Sarah, the correct security code was put in.
"Hey mom, is everything okay, have Danny and Luna called in?" he asked urgently.
"No, no," Sarah sounded disappointed exhausted, "nothing from either of them yet, I don't know it that's a good thing or a bad thing, however on the plus there's been no activity here either, so …" John could imagine his mother shrugging her shoulders, "how are you, you feeling any better?"
John finally took a moment to consider himself, how did he feel? He was angry still, upset, and guilty, he'd failed more people, he'd failed his own people, more people were dead because of him.
"I'm … I'll be okay, I swear. Just, I'm just … you know, someone else is dead because of me." John said, his emotional exhaustion evident in his tone.
Sarah knew John suffered internally, she knew he did because she did. "I know John, just hang in there okay?" she said softly, using the "caring mother" tone of voice.
"I will." He replied
"So what're doing, where's Cameron and the big metal is?" she suddenly asked.
John turned to look at Tony and Cameron both of whom were watching him.
"They're here with me, watching TV," he lied and pressed his finger to his lips, "nothing much else to do here." He added on.
"You and Cameron didn't get up to any funny business last night, did you?" Sarah asked, a slight threatening tone to her voice.
John's mind immediately went back to the night before, he was hurting internally and Cameron healed him a little, he was laying on his back grunting and panting while Cameron straddled him and rode him in a slow sensual pace. "No I just got into bed and slept like a rock, I was exhausted mom." He lied hoping and praying he sounded truthful.
"Alright, I'm sorry I asked, you just take care okay?" Sarah asked, apparently believing the lie.
"I will mom, and thanks," He replied, "I love you mom." He said softly.
"I love you too John." Sarah replied tenderly, then hung up.
John took a deep breath then slowly exhaled, trying to calm his nerves, all that pain and guilt had come rushing back after he had buried it with trying to save his beloved and his two Machine soldiers, the trio were left in silence, as John calmed himself.
"Rocks do not sleep." Tony said all of a sudden breaking the silence.
John turned towards him, confused. "What?"
"You said, "and slept like a rock" rocks do not sleep." Tony replied, his voice changing to John's to quote him before changing back.
"It's just an expression," John replied and watched as Cameron and Tony shared a glance to one another then looked back to John.
"Very well." The 800 replied. John could tell the Machine didn't understand, but it didn't matter at this point.
"How're you feeling Tony?" John asked then watched as the 800 lifted his head and looked at his legs and his arms flexing them carefully.
"Better, there is still more work to do." He replied then resumed his previous position.
John knew that much, they hadn't fixed his voice box, the puncture in his chest, the connection to his left thigh, the … god there was still so much to do, and they'd just started on him. John looked Tony in his deep red eyes.
"I'm sorry you ended up like this, because of me." John apologised sincerely.
"Saving John Connor is an honour." The 800 replied immediately.
John didn't like the sound of that, didn't like that people, even Machine people thought that saving him, dying for him, was an honour and that he was worth their sacrifice, because in his own eyes he simply wasn't, and never would be.
Cameron noticed John's expression, the haunted expression in his eye, he was hurting inside, and decided to quickly turn the topic away from his destiny.
"We would be better suited to our limited time if we continued working on Tony's repairs." She declared.
John was appreciative or the change on topic. "Right, let's get back to work." Debatably, John found himself thinking, fixing a machine was harder than upgrading its original parts, as he had done with Cameron, this time he had to make sure everything was set up just right, was just the right size, and before he was able to cut a few pieces down to size, Tony was a lot bigger than Cameron, and about the size of most of the larger Triple-Eights he'd encountered thus far, that along with the 800 and Triple-Eight series shared so little common shaped parts, so some parts didn't fit quite right but would suffice.
"I'll get onto welding his chest plate shut, you okay with his arm?" John asked as they finally removed Tony's endoskeleton chest plate, John took a quick look inside and whistled. "Woah." John's geeky side rose ever so slightly as he marvelled at the mechanical wonder of the endoskeleton, they were killing machine, sure, but they were beautifully constructed.
"It's impolite to stare John." Cameron chastised lightly, a hint of teasing to her tone.
"Ugh right, right." John replied bashfully, he looked at the chest plate which had a large puncture from the Terminatrix's blade, 'how did it puncture through?' he wondered and he looked at the width and thickness of the puncture. "Cameron," he called to her from over his shoulder. Cameron paused her work on Tony's torso and looked to John, "how could that Machine have punctured Tony's chest plate with just a knife?"
Cameron kept her eyes focussed on John as her CPU sought a possible answer, "It would take a durable alloy and plenty of strength to achieve, given what I know now, the Terminatrix has the strength, as for the alloy, it's possible it could be made of a high density steel or titanium." She offered.
John looked back at the heavy chest plate. "What about made out of Terminator hyper alloy?"
Cameron tilted her head, "Unlikely, a Terminator wouldn't sacrifice parts of itself for creating simple weaponry."
John grunted, "Usually …" he shook his head, it was pointless to think of this at the moment.
Cameron analysed John's thought, a blade made out of the Coltan-Titanium hyperalloy the 800 series family were made of, in the hands of something such as the hostile 895, it would most likely be able to penetrate an 800 series chest plate, but if that were true, where did the extra metal come from? Cameron refocused back on John as the boy was looking around for something.
"What are you looking for John?" she asked.
John looked at her sheepishly, "You can't see a welding mask around here or anything can you?"
Cameron scanned the room quickly then looked back to John, "There doesn't seem to be one, and we didn't procure one." She replied, it took her a moment to realise what the situation was. "I can weld the torso for you while you work on Tony, it'll be safer for you."
John stood without word but a grateful expression and walked over to Tony, he pressed his lips to Cameron's briefly then watched as she broke off, a gentle smile on her face then walked towards the 800 series chest plate, and the welding torch. John looked down at the work that needed to be done, it was daunting but not impossible.
"I trust you." Tony suddenly said, his voice still a fluctuating mess. John looked at him, curiously and Cameron, though she didn't turn to look, focused on what was happening behind her.
"Why do you say that?" John asked softly.
"You can fix what is broken, you're John Connor it's what you do." Tony replied.
"I thought I was meant to lead?" John quipped with a half-hearted smirk gracing his lips.
"Lead, save, fix, understand; they're what you do, what you're good at." Tony explained vaguely.
John looked back at the damage to Tony's inner workings, some parts had been severed but were fixable, he had the equipment to do so, so all he'd need was the patience and the nerve to get it done.
"I will guide you through what you need to do." Tony insisted.
"Alright, you talk, I'll fix." John proclaimed as he grabbed the necessary tools.
Earlier that day
Life was completely confusing, he hadn't expected his life to go this way, not to say he wasn't happy by how his life was going … well he wasn't happy, but he had money, good money and that's all that really mattered in the end, and he got to work from home, or well, safe house, sure he was doing illegal stuff but, hey he was safe he guessed, and his mother was okay, so okay maybe life wasn't all bad.
Charles Fischer sat at his state of the art computer as he looked over the information he had retrieved through various sources and hacked online accounts, his eyes darted through the files and jotted down necessary notes he'd be able to give his "employer". That crazy, bulletproof demon-devil-Satan woman-thing. Whatever the hell it was, she paid him and he didn't ask questions, he found that philosophy generally saved from stress, drama and kept job security … and his head on his shoulders.
He almost jumped in shock when his cell phone began to ring, he picked it up immediately and fumbled his greeting.
"He-ugh mm-hello?"
"Fischer, I have something I need you to do." It was his employer as it always was.
"What do you need?" he asked, trying his best to keep his nerves calm.
"I suspect you know about the school incident last night?" oh he knew, and he half guessed the devil-woman had something to do with it, "there likely to be footage of me on the police security tapes, I need you to remove it anyway you can before I'm linked to what happened." She demanded.
"I could upload a virus onto their systems, but that could delete everything." He suggested.
"Good work," she almost sounded pleased, "keep it up Fischer, I'll be around later tonight to check over what you've got for me, after you're done with the Police, take the day off."
"The day off?" he stuttered.
"I'm in a somewhat generous mood." She replied before hanging up.
Fischer didn't move for several seconds. She had given him the "okay" to create a virus and upload it onto the police network and the school network just for good measure which would theoretically delete all their files just so footage of her killing a bunch of kids would be deleted? Sure, why not? Not his kids, not his problem. Rich boss lady told him to do something and he'd get it done.
'This should be fun.' He thought sarcastically to himself.
Here and now
She hung up her phone terminating the call then placed it into her pocket, it had been several minute's since Alex had literally dropped Susan Christine Jones off at the hospital and drove away, since then she'd dumped the vehicle and rushed away before anyone could notice her. She was glitching she thought to herself, making mistakes and not analysing situations as best as she should, like the case of the school camera system, her original plan was for Sofia to get to retrieve the files footage by herself, but why when she had a sufficient hacker at her disposal? Why put this woman she lo-preferred the company of when she can simply use the hacker to delete everything.
"You need to get yourself fixed." She mumbled to herself as she stepped back into the apartment block and opened the door.
"Morning dear." Came a sweet old voice from beside the door.
The Terminatrix paused and looked at the old woman in a floral sun dress.
"Morning Mrs Lewinski, how's that handsome stud of yours?" Alex smirked slyly, causing the old woman to laugh.
"Handsome stud? You sure you know my husband?" she shook her head, "he's fine, got a few problems with his bowels, but he'll be fine," The Terminatrix stepped aside and allowed the old woman to pass, "I'll see you later dear."
"See you later." Alex replied in a friendly tone before making her way back upstairs, she was lucky it was only the old woman that had seen her, the woman's eye sight wasn't the best even with those huge rimmed glasses, if it were anyone else, they may have asked questions about her ruffled appearance, without another thought Alex made her way back to her room.
"Hey it's me." She called as she knocked on the door, she waited a few seconds as she heard sounds coming from the other side, footstep, then the sound of the door unlocking then opened allowing her entry.
"Did everything go okay?" Sofia asked hesitantly.
"No problem, in fact I've got some good news," Alex began to which Sofia eyed her carefully, "I've solved the security footage problem, got Fischer to find a way to delete it, so you won't need to risk your neck for me." He smirked.
Sofia released a breath of relief, and mumbled a "thank god" under her breath. "Okay, so … what's the plan for the day?"
Alex suddenly put her arms around Sofia's waist, causing the poor woman to yelp in surprise, then pulled her closer, a devious smile on her face, "It's your birthday soooo, I'm gunna spoil you rotten, it's only fair after what I've put you through, right?"
This was certainly unexpected, the twisted possible insane cyborg woman was going to spoil her on her birthday, what could that mean? Fancy food? Gifts? A day of shopping?
"You're gunna love it." The Machine said huskily.
Unexpected, but certainly not unwelcome.
"Where do we start?" Sofia asked.
"Shopping."
Sarah was in the living room alone at the safe house sat in an arm chair, Derek was upstairs doing who knows what, maybe looking outside in case of trouble but that was only a guess, her mind going over everything that had happened recently, over and over and over again; Danny joining their ranks, their team if she dare call it that, John and Cameron getting together, the discovery of some advanced lady-Terminator, some shady "Kaliba" company that most likely is at the heart of the whole Skynet uprising, the new faces in Catherine Luna and her metal friend and with them the knowledge of a changed future with a "Cameron Connor".
Things were a lot different from what Kyle had told her back in 1983, back when the T-800 was Skynet's deadliest Machine. Things seems so much simpler back then. But then, if the future had changed and a different version of Kyle Reese had gone back whom knew of these newer tougher Machines, and since she knew what he told her, had he lied to her? Had time travelled altered so much that her Kyle Reese had lied to her? Or maybe he didn't and … but … if? …
Sarah closed her eyes rest her face in her hands, "fuck time travel." She mumbled to herself then looked up, there was too much to take in, so much had changed in such a little time, and then there was the thought she put to the back of her head, Derek, she knew now he had a partner, or someone or other someone he obviously didn't want anyone to meet, but why? What was he and his partner doing, he said he and his contact were helping but were they? Sarah had a sinking feeling in her gut that she didn't like, everyone it seemed had something hidden from her, Derek had his mysterious partner, John and Cameron may or may not have been up to something, she wasn't sure what exactly, but she knew something was going on.
'Nobody on this team trust one another.' She thought glumly, sure they were all dedicated saving the world, stopping Skynet and keeping John safe, but they kept things from another and that could hurt them all in the long run. "What the hell are we going to do?" she wondered aloud before leaning back in the arm chair and allowed her head to rest against it. Their opponent was growing in strength and number with every passing day, or at least it seemed that way, they had no idea where to go or what to aim for, Kaliba seemed to be at the heart of all this, the heart of Skynet but they kept away from the spotlight and away from prying eyes. Sarah wasn't even sure where to hit them in order to hurt them, sure they'd done damage to one of the facilities owned by Kaliba, but it was just one facility, one of who knew how many.
'Stop. Stop, stop, stop!' she shook her head vigorously, 'Thinking like that isn't helping and it isn't you Sarah, come on, on your feet soldier!' she stood immediately and walked to the stairs and made her way upstairs, "Derek!" she called out.
"In here." He called from John's bedroom, Sarah walked in and saw him standing by the window looking outside through the certain. "I can't see anything out there yet, no cops, no hitmen, no metal, nothin'," He said as she entered then turned to look at her, "I can't stand the waiting."
She didn't like it either, the tension that could grow from it, the doubt, the questions things that messed with one's mind, "I know." She simply replied and leaned against the door frame, "What do you think of all that's happened Derek?"
Derek grunted and looked back outside, he had been dreading that she'd ask that question, he waited few moments before turning away from the curtain once more, leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"I don't know," he began accompanied with a shrug of his shoulders, "a lot of stuff has happened lately, and I wouldn't call all of it good," he gave Sarah a dark look which immediately softened and cast his gaze to the floor, "then again it aint all bad either."
"It's good we got some back up though, right?" Sarah replied never having taken her eyes off of him.
"It's good yeah, Cat is a good soldier, skilled, tough, knows how to deal with people, better than me," he commented, "At least the Catherine Luna I know was." He added on after a thought.
"She and the other Machine are from a different future than you."
"Yeah they are, she isn't the Catherine Luna I know." A dark thought suddenly struck him, if Luna was from a different future, what if Jesse was as well, sure they had the same memories, or at least very similar, was she from a time where Cameron had been with John from the start? If so why was she trying to destroy Cameron when the future John Luna spoke off, seemed like an actual human-fucking-being unlike the cold bastard he'd left behind in 2027. 'Fucking time travel.' he thought with annoyance.
"So what's the plan?" he suddenly asked and looked at her.
Sarah was temporarily caught off guard, in truth, she didn't know, her hopes were that no one would come round today, Catherine and Danny would find them a new safe house and John would be able to fix up the Machines, and then they go on their merry way to said new safe house and start looking for Skynet again. "That'll depend on how the day pans out for us."
There was a sudden shifting of the floor boards behind Sarah who spun around, pistol immediately out of her waistband and in her hand pointing down her eye line, at Susan Elizabeth Jones who yelped upon seeing the gun. Sarah groaned and lowered the gun.
"You want something?" she asked and holstered the pistol into her pants.
"Have you heard from anyone yet?" Susan asked timidly and Sarah visibly deflated and leaned against the wall.
"Nothing yet," Sarah replied, "are you packed just in case we need to leave early?"
"I'm ready," the timid woman replied, "when will it be over?" she suddenly asked.
Sarah looked to the woman coldly, "it'll be over when we win, or we die."
Susan released a shaky breath and nodded before carefully making her way downstairs.
"Why do we keep her here Sarah?" Derek whispered, just loud enough for Sarah to hear.
Sarah turned back to the man, "we have to protect her Derek, an advanced Terminator is out to kill her and only we can stop it."
He groaned, "She's such a waste of resources, she can't do anything." He complained.
Sarah hated to agree with him but she was, the woman would either have to get whipped into some sort of shape like Danny or, well there was no alternative.
"You better call soon Danny, or I'm gunna lose my mind." Sarah grumbled.
"So, that's another bust." Danny commented as he and Luna returned to the jeep, with Luna in the driver's seat.
"We keep looking amigo, got to find a new place in case shit hits the fan." Catherine replied.
They'd been house searching for hours, some were good but expensive and some wouldn't even haggle a price change, they'd seen a few decently priced places but to Catherine's military trained eye, the houses were a bust in terms of security, even if the Connors upgraded the security, they were too wide open, they needed a better advantage like their current place could give them.
"Alright well," Danny began as he pulled out a list of available placed he'd printed off the night before and ran a line across the address of another house, the house they now sat outside of, "we've got another … six to go and lucky the next one is only down the street, so hey who knows 8ths a charm right?" he said trying to be encouraging.
"Hope you're right Danny." Luna replied while turning on the jeep and drove down the road to the next for sale sign and stopped outside, suddenly she seemed very hopeful, the house had a long drive way, a garage and the size of it wasn't too bad, it was definitely something they could work with. "You go on up, I'll call Sarah let her know we've found something." Danny nodded wordlessly, got out of the jeep and made his way up the drive way while Luna called Sarah.
"Luna?" Sarah began as she picked up the call, Luna dialled in her security code. "Took you long enough, status?"
Quick to business, definitely Connor's mother. "We had a few setbacks on some of the possible safe houses, either too expensive, or security was pathetic, but I'm looking at one place now, it seems alright, long drive way with a wall I'm guessing about six feet tall maybe a little bigger, asking price is a little hefty, how far over budget should we go?"
Sarah could be heard groaning through the phone, and took a moment or two to respond, "We really need to get a new safe house, before something comes up, nothing's happened yet but I don't wanna stay too long in case something does," Sarah explained then went quiet again.
"Me and Tony got some cash from our squad, I'll put that forward too, it gives us a decent increase in funds." Luna offered.
"I appreciate it, alright here's what you'll do; check the area around the house, I'll defer to you on security, Derek says he trusts you enough with that so I do too and then do what you can."
"I'll get it, trust me." Luna replied then waited as Sarah hung up before placing her phone in her pocket. "I can do this." She murmured to herself before getting out of the jeep walking down the driveway to the house where Danny was already speaking to the salesman.
"… and you get the first month of rent free, it's really a great deal." The Salesman concluded, then noticed Luna, "Ah, your lovely wife I presume." He said in an overly friendly way with a fake smile. He was what you'd expect; white guy, stood just under six feet tall, wore a black suit with a white shift, combed dark hair and a clean shaven face, with a briefcase in hand, most likely full of documents.
Danny chuckled and put his arm around the Luna, "Ugh, yeah I'm lucky to have her."
Luna tensed up, but didn't let it show and smiled at the Salesman, "He's damn right he is," she looked to Danny, "so how's everything looking so far?" she asked
"Looks great, there's a nice yard out in the back, plenty of room, not had a thorough look but its great so far." Danny informed her, keeping up the pretence of being her husband.
So they had plenty of places to lay traps, and plenty of open area to lay down fire in case of ambush, so far so good, hopefully the house would continue to deliver. The Salesman led the duo around the house, showing them the ins and outs, both Luna and Danny asked questions, "who owned the house previous?" "Has there been any recent work done?" "Can we negotiate the price?" Luna had asked that one, the Salesman had been hard, but it showed he wanted to sell the house, so he seemed willing to bend a little which Luna used to her advantage. The Salesman and Luna stared one another down waiting for the other one to shift, to weaken their resolve, Danny could only look between the two as they fought some unseen war upon a mental battlefield. Finally one cracked.
"Alright, alright fine you win." The Salesman conceded, Luna smirked victoriously.
So they had it, a house with a long driveway, plenty of space in the back yard, a basement, three bedrooms, an attic, and a few rooms that had been cleared out, security wasn't great but that could be rectified later, and all of it within an affordable price. Jackpot finally.
Hands full of shopping bags, new clothes on their bodies, and plenty of cash to go through, this was definitely her kind of birthday, she knew some part of her should be upset that Rebecca wasn't here with her but there was no helping it, and she wouldn't let that ruin her day, not many things were getting to her these days, absent wife, co-operating with a mass murderer, murder itself, they seemed to faze her less and less each day. Strange how things turned out. Anyway, now they were going for lunch and the cyborg woman had promised her a lavish meal at a fancy restaurant, the waiter had been adamant they weren't allowed in without a reservation, but the machine put her hand into her jacket, and pulled out a thick wad of notes, the waiter's tune suddenly changed and invited them in like honoured guests, they were seated and Sofia removed her new jacket, Alex kept her face partially covered due to the damage she'd sustained, an extra wad of notes was given out to the waiter to avoid questions, they'd ordered and now were simply awaiting their main course while drinking exquisite wine.
"So, not too shabby so far today right?" A.T said from across the table.
Sofia finished what little was in her glass and nodded eagerly, "Yeah, it's been great, been nice just to relax for a while you know, everything has been so damn tense."
"Sorry." A.T offered, but her smug expression, at least what could be seen, showed she meant otherwise.
"Yeah, sure you are," Sofia chuckled and poured herself another glass from the bottle, "but hey I'm fine, everything's gunna be fine right?" she said and looked at her glass, "you'll do what you need to do, Rebecca will come back when she can, and life will continue on as normal," she shrugged without a care, "everything will work out."
Alex nodded along patiently, and raised her glass, "I can agree to that," the couple tapped their glasses together and took a long sip of wine.
Sofia looked at her glass for a moment longer before looking back to the Machine opposite her, "When everything is over, what will you do?" she asked
"Well I doubt Rebecca would be happy with me staying with you two, and there'd be too much heat in L.A by then, so I'd sell up my apartment, go live in the suburbs or perhaps travel again, see what's changed." She offered.
"And the end of the world?" Sofia asked quietly.
"I'll know the signs, I'll get back here as quick as I can, find you and Rebecca find shelter, then we'll see how it goes from there." Alex replied as she looked around for their waiter, it was then she felt vibration in her pocket, she adjusted herself and slipped her hand inside before retrieving her cell phone; Fischer. "Hello."
"I got done what you needed, I was able to locate the video feed from the school systems, and deleted it, but I sent in a virus just for good measure as you instructed, no one is seeing that footage." Fischer informed her.
A.T smirked upon hearing of his successful mission, "good work, I knew I could count on you, check your bank tomorrow lunch, you're bonus will be there." She hung up and smiled to Sofia who looked at her confused. "Just finishing up some loose ends, no need to worry about it."
"I see, that's good then?" Sofia asked.
"It's better than good." Alex replied.
Sofia looked around at the various fancy looking people in different tables, this place was definitely over her paygrade, these people were doctors, lawyers, judges, or came from old money, middle and upper class snobs to be precise, but then after the bombs fell they and the homeless people they looked at with disgust would become equal, she turned back to the Machine opposite her, "Can you stop it?"
Alex knew what she was talking about, and paused in her nosing of other people's business and turned to look at Sofia directly, "From immature me becoming active to the end of the world, I'd have a very narrow gap to find and destroy it, maybe too narrow, I'd have to find it before then."
"Have you ever thought of looking?"
"I've looked, but it was too early, nothing had come about yet, before you and I met I went to a find someone in a facility owned by a computing company, that was my last lead." She replied, only partially lying.
Sofia sighed and leaned back in her chair, "I don't want the world to end."
"I know, but I'd protect you." Alex smirked then took notice of their waiter whom had their orders in his hands. "Now look alive, time to eat."
The sun was setting over the horizon, John Connor and Cameron were placing the tools away in the car, their work on Tony had improved him somewhat, but his voice was still messed up, thankfully the guy wasn't limping anymore and his hydraulics were moving more fluidly than they had been, but again it was still a patch work job, there was still plenty of work to do, as for Cameron, she wasn't 100% but she deemed herself efficient enough to resume her duties effectively. As the afternoon had gone on, Sarah had called once more to let him know the new address of their new safe house, and that she and Derek were already on their way with the guns, ammo and everyone's clothes, John was thankful he and Cameron had taken anything endoskeleton based from the house before they left, if Derek or Sarah happened upon any of it, they were in trouble. Even though they had been somewhat successful that afternoon John wasn't satisfied, his thought went to Stark whom had yet to be worked upon, his thoughts went back to the Grey; Fitzgerald, and he suddenly he felt like such an idiot.
"You were right Cam," he said suddenly breaking the minutes of silence there had been as they packed away their stuff.
"About what John?" she asked, confused.
"When we found out where Jesse lived, we should have just broken in while she was there and had Stark kill her." He replied without any infliction.
"If we had, then you and I would have been alone yesterday, you and I could've been killed." She replied.
John swallowed nervously, she was right, if Jesse had just been simply killed, he wouldn't have needed Tony and Stark to attempt to trap her, they wouldn't have been there, Cameron would have fought the Terminatrix alone and would have likely had been destroyed, and then it would have killed him.
"I guess things work out one way for a reason." He said weakly.
"It appears so," Cameron replied, then gave John a concerned look, "what's wrong John?"
"I was just thinking about Fitzgerald, I ordered his death and it was so easy, then I remember all this tip toeing around Jesse we've been doing and it all seemed so unnecessary." He exclaimed then sighed with frustration as be closed the case the tools were held in.
"You've done it for a reason John, you want to know your enemy, in case your original plan went wrong, Jesse Flores is a resistance soldier they can be unpredictable when cornered." Cameron replied.
John glanced to her and gave her a thankful smile before looking over his shoulder at Tony who was wrapping gauze around his organic parts, or what remained of them then covered himself with his hooded jacket and gas mask over his face.
"Ready to go." He proclaimed and looked to his two superior officers.
"Awesome," he looked to Cameron, "are you okay to drive?" he asked.
"Affirmative." She replied resolutely before climbing into the driver's seat and John climbed into passenger seat and closed the door, they waited as Tony walked in front of them and lifted the large doors and allowed them to drive out, they heard the doors shut behind them then Tony get in the car behind them and close the door, then drove off away from the abandoned garage.
As they drove John leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes, he was tired, his limbs ached which to him said that he was out of shape, or needed to be in better shape.
"I want to make another plan about what to do with Jesse," he said tiredly as his head rolled from side to side as Cameron turned a corner, "it's time we put an end to this game of cat and mouse," Cameron looked at him questioningly, "As soon as were settled, I want to find Jesse Flores and bring her in, then afterwards depending on what we find out will depend on whether or not we keep her around." John coldly glared at the windscreen in front of him and gently held Cameron's hand as she reached out for him, he was doing this for them, for her, he was sick of the bullshit.
Cameron looked back to the road, but John's words concerned her, her scans indicated he was tense, angry, his heart beat was faster and his blood pressure had increased. The effects of the previous night seemed to be taking a firm hold on John.
"I will apprehend Jesse Flores." Tony spoke up from the back.
"No," John turned to look at the damaged 800, "we go together. I'm not risking anyone else." He said adamantly.
"We'll get her John." Cameron said confidently, hoping to alleviate some of his stress. He smiled at her slightly, his heartbeat slowing down to a more normal pace, his features relaxing, he calmed down.
The rest of the journey was in silence, they drove past the old safe house, slowing down just to look at it for nostalgia's sake, sometimes it was hard to let go of things, then they arrived at the new house, they definitely had a bigger lawn.
"Thoughts?" John asked the pair of Machines.
"It has potential." Tony supplied.
Cameron scanned the area of the property, giving what she could see a few detailed glances, "The front seems effectively barricaded, it may deter less trespassers," namely Jesse Flores, but none of them said it, "the attic is an effective sniper's nest, with a large enough window for a clear view of the area."
"Yeah, my thoughts exactly." John added lamely getting a curious look from the two, or what he would guess was a curious look from Tony. "I'll call mom, let her know we're here."
He did so as Tony got out and opened the gate, allowing Cameron to drive in then parked outside the house. John waited as Tony closed the gate followed them then paused by the car as John and Cameron got out.
"We need to hide the tool, and hide Stark and the extra endo," John informed them and looked around, sadly not being able to see much due to the dark of night.
"I'll find a suitable place for them, if not I'll take them back to the apartment." Tony suggested.
"Thanks, I owe you." John ran his fingers through his hair then scratched the back of his head.
"No you do not," Tony replied before walking off, "both of you get inside." He ordered then continued to look around.
John and Cameron shared a quick glance then moved towards the front door, John knocked and they waited a few seconds as the door was opened by Derek.
"About time you got here," he looked up and then around them, "where's the big metal?" he asked.
"Tony's walking the perimeter looking for threats." Cameron informed him.
Derek huffed and stepped aside allowing John and Cameron entrance. The house was fairly nice in John's opinion, a fairly similar layout to their previous place, the front door opened up to the kitchen, which wasn't that bad in John's opinion, next to it was the living room, John could see a hallway to his left which most likely had the stairs somewhere.
"So this is the new home base?" John asked and looked around, "not bad, been in worse," he looked to his mother who was just getting up from her seat, "so, is everything here now?" he asked.
"Not everything yet, some of us are going back tomorrow to pick up everything else, some of which is your stuff." Sarah replied.
That was good, that gave them a chance to get Stark's chip. "That's fine, have we decided who's getting which bedroom?" he asked.
"Derek's getting the attic, so we'll need to get a new bed, you and tin miss can choose between your bedrooms," Sarah began and saw John open his mouth to talk, "no you're not sharing a room," She replied, "this relationship you've got, and Mrs Cameron Connor is fine for now, but you are not sharing a room, I swear to god, no!" Sarah ranted and stared at her son, she wanted to lay that down immediately, for all those present, even though she knew Cameron would likely sneak into John's room anyway, with that thought maybe John and Cameron should have the attic room instead, so she didn't have to hear them going at it. 'And now you're thinking of your son and his cyborg going at it, get a grip Sarah.'
"Mom, mom, you okay there?" John asked curiously as he waved his hand at her, "Hello, earth to Sarah?"
"I'm fine, I'm here, just spaced out a little." She shook her head and got back to the topic at hand. "No, you're not sharing a room," she began
"But it would be better for everyone else if we did," Cameron interrupted getting everyone's attention. "It would free up a room which I would not use for the majority of the time, and I would be close to John further ensuring his survival."
Everyone looked at one another.
"Can't argue with that," Surprisingly, it was Derek who spoke first, "it'll keep him safer Sarah and as it-she says, she doesn't need a room and the one at the old house went to waste so may as well make use of it now we got a few extra on the team … and Susan, we could use that room," he explained, true he himself didn't like the idea of having the metal/-Cameron near John in a room, at night, with them together, he found it sickening that the Leader of the Human Resistance, was not so secretly banging his cyborg girlfriend, but from what he'd learned from Luna and the 800 the ever changing future seemed just a little brighter with a more human like John Connor, he decided it was better this way with them two together. Not that he'd ever say it out loud. "Besides, with that … new metal out there and Skynet hiding behind every goddamn corner, we need to keep John as safe as possible."
Everyone, apart from Cameron, looked at Derek with surprise and shock, he'd never said something so clear headed and well thought out since they met them.
"Who are you and what have you done with Derek Reese?" John suddenly asked.
"Perhaps it is a Triple-Eight in guise of Derek." Cameron added, playing along.
Derek glared at them both, "Oh ha-ha you're both so fucking funny." He drawled
"I don't like it." Sarah finally said, her eyes not leaving Derek.
"You don't have to like it Sarah." Derek replied and turned his attention to her. "You do it for John."
Sarah and Derek stared at one another, neither letting go of the topic, that was until Sarah relented, "Okay fine, you're right." She turned to look at John and Cameron, "You two can sleep together," her eyes opened wide at what she said, "Stay together! In the same room!"
John smirked at his mother, then it formed into a true smile, "Thanks mom, I appreciate it."
"I swear to god John, if you two wake me up just once you'll both regret it, understood?" she warned him.
"Loud and clear." He mock saluted her.
It was at this time Tony opened the door and walked in, his endoskeleton covered with the hooded jacket and gas mask "You feelin' better amigo?" Catherine asked as she walked towards Tony.
"The Generals have been able to make minor repairs," Tony replied his voice muffled by the gasmask while he glanced to John and Cameron then focussed on Luna, "I'm better than I was this morning." He summarised, his voice breaking down into a toneless, genderless machine tone.
"You don't sound better, that gunna fix on its own?" she asked.
"Negative, however it is a minor repair." He replied as his voice briefly returned to normal.
"I'd need to get my hands on a radio." John explained and scratched the back of his head, they already had a radio, they simply hadn't gotten around to fixing up his vocal systems.
"Well leave fixing the metal for another day," Derek exclaimed, getting a dirty look from Luna.
It was Sarah who spoke next, and looked to everyone, "Derek's right, we need to rest up, get the rest of our stuff tomorrow then try and settle in here, so everyone get to your rooms, or pick a spare one and get some rest," she paused and looked at John and Cameron, "and I mean rest clear?"
"Absolutely." "No problem." Came Cameron and John's reply.
Sarah seemed satisfied then looked to Tony, "there are a few guns in the jeeps we brought over, you bring them inside and secure them then tomorrow we'll hide them in strategic places."
"Affirmative." Tony replied stoically.
"What's there to do after that Sarah?" Danny asked.
"We need to clean that bloody wall," she replied meaning the wall covered in blood made messages, "we get all the information from it we can, everything I don't care if it's a mistake or not, I want everything written down that's on that wall, afterwards we start again, starting with Kaliba see what else we can get on them," she looked to Luna and Tony, "you two said something about there being an Alliance, who is John allied with?"
"It is not yet time to reveal that information." Tony replied immediately then looked to John, "my apologies, however when the time is right you will be informed."
"Why not tell us now?" Sarah replied and crossed her arms.
"Just trust us on this, okay? It'll be better for everyone." Luna informed them.
"Okay, we trust you." It was John who spoke up, using a tone of voice the future warriors all knew of, the commanding tone of General John Connor. "But you swear, if things get any worse, you'll let us know immediately." John stared Luna and Tony down, his stance, his tone of voice and his stare telling them they had little to no choice in the matter.
"We promise, don't worry sir." Luna replied not knowing the "sir" slip, Tony simply nodded in reply.
"Okay, that's done," he looked from them to his mother, "so what else is there planned for tomorrow?"
For Sarah it took her a moment to comprehend what had just happened before her eyes, she blinked and nodded her head, "Find out any more we can about Kaliba, that'll be it."
"Alright, so … who's up for take-out?" Derek suddenly suggested.
She was sad to see the day coming to a close, she had a stress free, exciting and truly enjoyable day, between the shopping spree she was given, the exquisite lunch she had, the movie she'd gone to see which she thought was both funny and sweet,
"Who knew a movie about making a porno could end so romantically?" Sofia had asked at the time as she and Alex walked out of the theatre.
"Guess you should never underestimate the power of a penis." Alex replied and Sofia had burst out laughing before hitting the cyborg on the arm.
"You're gross."
"Zack and Miri make a Porno" had been a surprisingly good film, despite the fact Alex admitting she thought it would have been an actual porno, and Sofia had a good time, an honest to god good time. She knew later she would regret it but the murders, the kids killed in crossfire, all the things this cyborg assassin had done, faded away to the back ground as it sweet talked her, comforted her, smiled at any stupid joke she made, was she falling in love for another woman? Maybe, at the time it didn't matter.
They'd returned home to Alex's apartment, simply to shower and change before they left for a night out on the town, which Sofia had to remember not to drink excessively due to being back at work the next day.
"You worry too much." Alex said as she examined the wounds to her organic sheath which were healing steadily but enough endoskeleton still shone through them that she'd still have to wear long sleeves, pants and gloves to conceal her true identity. She deemed her outfit of a black leather jacket, a deep red t-shirt, dark blue jeans and boots, sufficient cover for tonight.
"Says you!" Sofia called from the bathroom, "You don't have an actual job!"
"Okay, you got me there!" Alex called back, "But I'll make sure you get up in time tomorrow."
"You better, last thing I need is getting fired." Sofia shot back before stepping out of the bathroom wearing one of her outfits, an elegant grey blouse with long black pants and a new pair of shoes. "How do I look?" she asked the cyborg.
Alex turned to look at her and smirked, "Sexy, I love it." She growled seductively for added affect.
The ladies were ready for their night on the town.
Alex knew Sofia had been having fun, she could tell by the woman's expressions, her posture, her tone of voice, however it only took a small part of her CPU to keep track of her. The rest of it had been going over in slow detail what had happened the night before, primarily the scene she'd witnessed just before she opened fire on James Shepard and John Connor.
VISUAL/AUDIBLE PLAYBACK – 717556 … INITIALISING
… PLAYBACK 717556. HOUR 22:39 …
"HEY! Hey Baum!"
"Hey asshole what do you think you're doing?"
"No guys it's cool, leave him to me."
"Fuck this guy John, kick his ass!"
"Riley not helping!"
REPEAT
"Riley, not helping!"
"Riley, not helping!"
"Riley, not helping!"
Who was this "Riley" girl, did she know her from the future was she important? John Connor seemed to know her enough.
CODE PHRASE: RILEY … SEARCHING INTERNAL MEMORY …
0 RESISTANCE MEMBERS FOUND
0 ALLIED HUMAN FORCES FOUND
0 REBEL MACHINE MEMBERS FOUND
CONTINUING SEARCH …
MATCH FOUND MEMORY-712333
CAMERON BAUM
JOHN BAUM
ALEX CROSS
JOHN SCHOFIELD
RILEY DAWSON
It was a school listing she'd read before she and Sofia had even met. Since last night she'd identified the boy she'd met as "John Baum" at the school that day as really Morris Taheda, John Connor must have been John Baum all long. Then why had Morris interfered? Did he know Connor's true alias? Perhaps, she'd have to meet Morris again, but then again Connor really seemed to know this Riley girl … Riley Dawson; female, 16 years old, blonde hair, and a full address, she'd have to meet her too. She'd start with the girl, firstly at her address, but sadly not until her sheath was fully regenerated, so she'd simply have to stalk the girl, see where she went who she met with, if she was fortunate maybe Riley would meet up with Connor.
Alex took Sofia out to a small club, they had twenty minute till their reservation at the restaurant and it was only down the next street. The girls laid claim to their spot at the bar and ordered a drink, a simple cheap beer for Alex and something a little fancier for Sofia.
"So, am I forgiven?" Alex asked as she took a small sip of her drink.
Sofia was quiet for a moment, pondering over the question before looking the Machine woman in the eye. "You've tipped my life upside down, you've made my professional life exhausting, and every moment I'm with you I may end up being shot by whoever, but I don't know, I guess I've forgiven you, you've been nothing if not dependable." She replied.
A.T understood Sofia's point of view, she'd brought nothing but chaos into the woman's life so much in fact she was surprised by the woman's ease of forgiveness, she didn't want to stare a gift horse in the mouth but couldn't help but ask why.
"Why so forgiving? Pretty sure anyone else would have cursed me, hated me, and sold me out." Alex asked.
"You think so? Look at it from my point of view; I know what you are, what your capable of, if I or anyone would have done what you said they'd do, I or they wouldn't be alive much longer, you'd have found us and killed us, not before leaving a path of corpses in your wake," Sofia paused and took a sip of her drink, letting the cool sweet alcoholic beverage slide down her throat, "it's what you do right? I'm doing my best to look at this practically."
A.T was surprised but not unsettled by what she'd just heard, a slow smirk crossed her lips, "Good, you know the score, but still, I'm sorry for what I've done to you and appreciate your cooperation in all of this."
"I'll be safe though right, you said I would be, worse comes to worse, you'll protect me." Sofia replied.
"I would, you and Rebecca," she paused for a brief second as she pulled up Rebecca's original scheduled return date, it should have been earlier in the week but for whatever reason, Rebecca wouldn't be able to return until sometime the following week, "sorry Rebecca couldn't be here." Alex said genuinely.
Sofia sighed, "It's okay, she called me to wish me a happy birthday and apologise for not being here now, said she'd make it up to me." She gave the cyborg a small smile but it wasn't fooling anyone, she was upset her wife wasn't here.
"I'm sure she will." A.T replied with an easy smile before taking a sip of her beer.
The atmosphere around them seemed to shift with a simple change of a song; people whom had had a bit too much to drink were getting to the dance floor to the sound of "Y.M.C.A" playing over the loud speakers. Alex glanced over to the dancers then looked to Sofia with a sly smile.
"No." Sofia said immediately, her resolute face set in stone.
"Come on." Alex replied slyly
"No." Sofia said once again.
"I can drag you up there, you know I can." Alex's smirk seemed to grow upon seeing Sofia's frown get larger.
"I'd yell rape."
"Like anyone would hear you over the music." Alex gave her, her best smug expression.
Sofia finally caved, "Fine, alright, alright, just one dance."
"Yeah, just one, that's fine." Alex held her hands up in surrender.
"You sure you should be dancing in your condition?" Sofia asked as they rose from their place at the bar.
"Everyone here is drunk and preoccupied to notice anything of me, and unless I make it blatantly obvious, no one will find out." A.T replied as she dragged Sofia over to the dance floor.
The dance soon ended with Sofia laughing from the drunken antics of one dancer, whom ended up falling over backwards on the dance floor, Alex had told her that their reservation was soon and both girls had returned to their place at the bar, finished their drinks then abruptly left.
"So this place is good right?" Sofia asked as she wrapped her coat tight around her, shivering at the gentle yet cool November night breeze.
"It's got good reviews and a four-star rating, so it should be good," the cyborg replied before her eyes focused on the restaurant itself, "and here we are." Alex opened the door to the birthday girl and allowed her to step inside first.
Sofia was glad to be out of the cold and into the warm. She took a moment to look around the place as they stepped towards the waiter at the welcome desk.
"We have reservations under the name "Taylor", booked in for seven o'clock." Alex said immediately.
The waiter quickly scanned through his list and smiled back to them. "Right this way ladies."
John's eyes opened abruptly the next morning, his consciousness awakening becoming fully alert within seconds; just as his mother had trained him. He quickly recollected everything that had happened within the last twenty-four hours; the Halloween party, the plan to ambush Jesse, the T-895 Terminatrix, Stark being killed, Tony being heavily damaged, Cameron being damaged, and then the attempt to fix his two "living" Machines and the possible hope of reviving the other, then moving into a new safe house.
Speaking of which. He took note of his position, his arms wrapped around Cameron's body, his legs intertwined with hers with her back pressing up against his chest, they were both still clothed, no sex had been had last night.
"John?" her voice came softly, like a welcome breeze into his ears.
"I'm awake." He replied, his throat kind of sore.
"I know." She replied then carefully turned herself around in his arms, he could see her cuts were healing nicely, "are you alright?"
That was a good question, and honestly he didn't know the answer, "A lots happened recently, I just need to take it all in."
Cameron nodded in understand, the human brain didn't work as fast as her CPU, even if that human brain was John Connor's. "It's alright, take your time we're in no hurry." She replied quietly before leaning closer and gently pressing her lips to his, a gesture he happily responded too.
Cameron broke away from the kiss and John whined gently making the cyborg girl look at her lover with confusion. John reached up and placed a hand along her jaw gently then used his thumb to caress her cheek. Cameron smiled innocently at the attention.
"I love you." He said, his voice barely a whisper.
"I know," Cameron replied using a similar tone, "I love you too" she added.
The couple stayed that way for a few more moments before John yawned, the final fragments of sleep fading from his body and mind, he turned over and looked at clock. 06:57 am
"Do you know where everyone is?" John asked as he turned back to Cameron.
"I heard Sarah exit her room approximately twenty-seven minutes ago, Tony has been patrolling throughout the night, I heard commotion downstairs, it sounded like Lieutenant Luna and Daniel Dyson." She reported immediately.
"We've got work to do today, once everyone is up that is." John said before, reluctantly, pulling himself away from Cameron, a sensation Cameron herself didn't like either, John sat up shivering a little as the cold air touched his skin and stretched.
"Sarah wanted us to retrieve everything else from the previous safe house and clean the bloodied wall." Cameron said as she sat up as well, parroting what Sarah had said the night before.
John stopped stretching, then silently groaned, but his mother was right, if another family moved into that house they absolutely could not see the writing on the wall, they'd be freaked out and inform the police and that was something they didn't need right now. John turned to Cameron, smiled at her lazily then leaned forward and kissed her gently before getting up, grabbing some clean clothes, then walked with Cameron into the bathroom and showered together.
Thirty-five minutes later, fifteen minutes after they'd actually cleaned themselves, the couple were downstairs, everyone else was up and looking at the TV which was still going over the shooting at the school, and now it seemed the security footage was missing.
"So the metal knows how to cover its tracks" Derek announced with disgust before looking towards Sarah, "this is just fucking great." He grumbled.
"Actually, it could be counterproductive." Cameron announced gaining everyone's attention.
"How do you figure?" Sarah asked.
Cameron looked back to the television, "I'm sure there was footage that captured the Machine running after John, even with his costume on, John could be identified," she paused to let her words sink in for the others, "John could have been taken to the police station, even if it's for questioning, or what could be seen as his protection, the Terminatrix could have waited for it to happen, wait for information to be passed through the police network, even damaged, my new files on the 890 series Terminator tell me that an explosion such as the one we made wouldn't have destroyed the cyborg, nor would it have caused too much damage to the endoskeleton."
"So that thing is still out there?" Danny asked, panic rising in his voice.
"The 890 series were created by Skynet to try and merge the best of the 850 and the 888 series endoskeletons, though neither were perfectly achieved the 890 series is still an immense threat, even the 895 variants are dangerous despite their smaller builds." Tony informed the group, his voice still damaged.
Cameron nodded her head in thanks to Tony before continuing to address the others, "Despite any damage it could have gained from the explosion, the cyborg would have enough time to fix anything minor and still be combat effective, especially against the police force."
"So because the footage was deleted, the police can't find John," Derek said slowly as his mind began to piece together what was being said.
"… and that won't lead the cyborg to John." Sarah said a loud finishing the vocalised thought as she stared at the wall, her mind a flurry with confusion, she looked back to Cameron, "but why would it do that?"
"I don't know" Cameron replied, "hypothetically speaking, if it were me after John I wouldn't have deleted the footage, I'd have no reason to."
Everyone, the humans rather, looked at one another, confusion written on their expressions.
"I don't get it." Susan suddenly said.
"I don't think any of us get why." Luna replied.
"You could understand if any of us deleted the footage," John said the others looked to him, "I mean, we wouldn't … want … to be … identified." John's voice slowed as the last few words left his mouth as a thought came to his mind.
"No John," Derek said immediately, sensing the boy's conclusion, "metal doesn't care if they're identified if they can get rid of their primary target."
"But what if it did." John replied uneasily.
"Then the Machine may have some semblance of sentience." Tony replied.
The machine man's words hung heavily in the air.
Sarah decided something needed to be said, they needed action.
"Alright, listen we'll deal with the metal later, we've got other things to deal with." She said with authority, "we go to the old safe house, bring everything else with us and clean that wall, we need to do this quickly."
"Ugh Sarah!" Susan called out with a stunned voice, eyes settled on her as she pointed to the TV.
They all turned and saw the news had shifted to another story.
"… the missing-presumed-dead Susan Christine Jones, was rushed to the emergency ward late yesterday afternoon after being taken from police custody and was missing for several days, security footage only shows a car pulling up and pausing momentarily before Miss Jones was ejected from the passenger side door before speeding away."
Team Connor were in shocked silence.
"The vehicle was later found abandoned on the road side, no eye witnesses have currently come forward with any new information, more on this story as it develops."
"Susan Christine Jones was likely abducted by the Terminatrix." Cameron said breaking the silence.
"Then why give her back?" Danny asked anyone who could answer.
"I don't know, but this metal is making less and less sense." Derek growled.
"Come on," Sarah began, her eyes not moving away from the television, "we better get started."
The team drove back to the previous safe house in different vehicles, John, Cameron, Luna and Tony in the car, while Sarah drove with Derek, Danny and Susan in the jeep, it took just over an hour and not a word was spoken between any of them, Cameron was worrying over John but did not voice her concerns, Danny was worried for Derek and Sarah, and Susan was terrified for herself, she only grasped what was going on, but whatever had been said earlier must have meant that thing after her was more dangerous than they thought.
Eventually they arrived at their old safe house, the other jeep and the hummer were parked outside just as they left them.
"I'll survey the area, stay here." Tony stated, his voice muffled by the gas mask then stepped out of the vehicle, and began to walk towards the house. John watched as from the other car Derek got out, possibly with the same idea and walked a different stretch of the house.
Within the next few minutes Tony reappeared and nodded to the group, giving them the okay.
They all got out of their vehicles and Sarah motioned them to converge around her.
"Alright, here's the game plan; John, Cameron, Tony and Susan will clean the blood from the wall, I don't want a speck remaining, understood?" She received a simple nod of the head in reply, "the rest of us will get the supplies, the guns and anything else we may need, we'll meet back here. Alright let's get moving."
John, Cameron went to the bloodied wall while Tony and Susan went into the house for cleaning products.
"You got it all saved to memory?" John asked, he and Cameron had been stood in front of the wall for a few moments.
"Yes, I'll recreate what I see when we return to the new house." She replied.
John felt a wave of melancholy engulf him, he frowned and sighed ever so slightly, "I actually thought this place was …"
"GUYS! GUYS!" Danny Dyson's voice came from outside, loudly and quickly. The couple turned to see Danny Dyson run into the small room, panting from his obvious rush to get to them. "Sarah needs you guys in the house now!"
"What's going on?" John asked, feeling his own panic rise.
"Sarah got a phone call," Danny took a deep breath to, "from someone called Lauren Fields."
Jason's notes
Sorry for the long wait everyone, I was hoping to get this chapter finished earlier but … well work was a pain and a few of my staff have left so it puts more strain on the rest of us. I can't apologise enough.
I hope the chapter makes up for it, the next episode/chapter should have something to do with the episode "Alpine Fields." But before I start writing it, I'd like your thoughts, should it be like the episode and focus on Derek, or should I try and do what wasn't seen in that episode?
Love to hear your thoughts, and again deepest apologies. Merry Christmas everyone.
On that note, I'm hoping to get a Christmas story out, but knowing me, don't hold your breath, sorry I'm not more reliable.